Protect your E-Mail account.
This past weekend i had to help a friend that has lost control of his E-Mail account, this can be a serious issue and always needs to be dealt with in a quick manner.
In this post I will show you how to protect your email account from being hacked.?
Now one question which arises in our mind is? Is it so easy to hack an email account? OR Is it so difficult to protect an email account from being hacked??
The single answer to these two questions is. Absolutely NOT! It is neither easy to hack an email nor difficult to protect an email account from being hacked.
The answer is very simple. They don't know how to protect themselves from being hacked! In fact most of the people who lose their email accounts are not the victims of hacking but the victims of Trapping. They lose their passwords not because they are hacked by some expert hackers but they are fooled to such an extent that they themselves give away their password.
Are you confused? If so continue reading and you'll come to know the answer.
Now I'll mention some of the most commonly used online scams which fool people and make them lose their passwords. I'll also mention how to protect your email account from these scams.
1. WEBSITE SPOOFING
Website spoofing is the act of creating a website, with the intention of misleading the readers. The website will be created by a different person or organisation (Other than the original) especially for the purposes of cheating. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.
For example a Spoofed Website of Yahoo.com appears exactly the same as the Yahoo Website. So most of the people believe that it is the original site and lose their passwords. The main intention of spoofed websites is to fool users and steal their passwords. For this, the spoofed sites offer fake login pages. These fake login pages resemble the original login pages of sites like Yahoo, Gmail, Orkut etc. Since it resembles the original login page, people believe that it is true and give away their username and passwords by trying to login to their accounts.
Solution:
Never try to login/access your email account from the sites other than the original site.
Always type the URL of the site in the address bar to get into the site. Never click on the hyperlink to enter the site.
2. BY USING KEYLOGGERS
The other commonly used method to steal passwords is by using a Keylogger. A Keylogger is nothing but a spyware. If you just access your email account from a computer installed with keylogger, you will definately lose your password. This is because the keylogger records each and every keystroke that you type.
Solution:
Protecting yourselves from a keylogger spyware is very easy. Just install a good anti-spyware program and update it regularly. This keeps your PC secure from a keylogger. Also there is a program called Anti-keylogger which is specially designed to detect and remove keyloggers. You can use this program to detect some stealth keyloggers which remain undetected by many anti-spyware programs.
3. ACCESSING YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT FROM CYBER CAFES
Do you access your email from cyber cafes? Then definately you are under the risk of losing your password.In fact many people lose their email accounts in cyber cafes. For the owner of the cyber cafe it's just a cakewalk to steal your password. For this he just needs to install a keylogger on his computers. So when you login to your email account from this PC, you give away your password to the cafe owner. Also there are many Remote Administration Tools (RATs) which can be used to monitor your browsing activities in real time.
This doesn't mean that you should never use cyber cafes for browsing the internet. I know, not all the cyber cafe owners will be so wicked but it is recommended not to use cafes for accessing confidential information. If it comes to the matter of security never trust anyone, not even your friends. I always use my own PC to login to my accounts to ensure safety.
Now this is very IMPORTANT, all this applies even more when you are using online banking facilities, using Paypal, Alertpay etc.
I hope this post is of some help and guidance to you, the thieves and scammers are always on the prawl, so be on the lookout.
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Comments (22)
Bless M.7
Home Maker
yah,It's really painful when somebody will steal from you. That's why it pays to be careful always especially when you're living with other families in your household. Had bad experience too with this, but not my email. It was an inside job incident and it was really painful because you cannot do anything though you know who did that to you,just so, their reputation will be protected. That's why I wish everybody will always play the "GOLDEN RULE" - "If you do not want others to do unto you, do n
Dawie Bezuidenhout11
Systems Engineer I.T.
@kakal, if you have no other choice but to use internet cafes, you should always use the windows onscreen keyboard feature when entering your email and password. This provides some extra security but is not foolproof.
Kakal Vava6
kakal
Good ACCESSING YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT FROM CYBER CAFES
Enamul Huque11
SEO Specialist
Do not click on any link in the email from any unknown person.
Damodaran K raman7
freelancer
Thanx 4 this info.
I have lost one account with a lot of important mails.
Thanking again for this
Vps Malhotra16
Free Lancer
cindy thanks for giving Skype advice it wonderful I have been cautioned by to for not indulging in the luxury of clicking on files sent bt my "contacts" i stop it forthwith
Thanks a lot I thought I knew about email hacking etc but skype I never thought that way thanks yourws post is an eye opener for me
For Daweie all thanks I shall soon have some anti-keylogger installed do you know any such sotware ? Or for SKYPE so it say I use skype more than email
shall be thanksul gto you all the best
Dawie Bezuidenhout11
Systems Engineer I.T.
@Everybody, thanks for the positive feedback, just doing my bit to help.
@Pete, hope you got yours all sorted, i know this can be a real pain.
Pete Balasch Jr.14
Internet Marketer Pod caster
Very Good Info Some one took over my email Account a Few Months Ago and Got in to all My Hosting accounts a Real Pain.
Vps Malhotra16
Free Lancer
Thanks for putting up this wonderful piece of information which I feel all email providers should include in their guides for the subscriber
Very informatary and good advice full of email wisdom
Excellent Rating 5 star*****
Anginetta W.9
International Marketing Consultant
I google searched "someone's sending spam from my email" got a little better help. Thanks for your help
Dawie Bezuidenhout11
Systems Engineer I.T.
@Cindy, Thanks for that, i typed my answer before i refreshed the page. Thanks.
@Shue and Shawn. Many times the hacker will change the secret question and secondary email address right after the account is compromised. This is the reason for the Password Reset process to fail. If this is the case then you need to contact the Gmail support team by filling out the account recovery form. This form will ask you to fill out several questions like
1. Email addresses of up to five frequently emai
Anginetta W.9
International Marketing Consultant
Thanks Cindy, checking it out now
Dawie Bezuidenhout11
Systems Engineer I.T.
@Ms Anng, if it is a gmail account the process is quite easy seeing you still have access to your account. After you log into your account, go to the bottom of that page, there you will see "last account activity" with a details button next to it. Click the details and a screen will come up that shows you all the open connections to your account. Just click the button that says "sign out all other sessions". This will sign out all other ip addresses except yours. Close that screen, sign out of y
Harold Baughman10
Hi Cindy....."GREAT ADVISE" & nice researching.....
Harold
Cindy Bolley16
HHCTB?
Here is the Question I did a search for.
what do you do if your email account has been hacked?
It gave advise on several other Types of email accounts, in case your not using gmail... Which is what all should be using IMHO anyway
Cindy
Cindy Bolley16
HHCTB?
I took the liberty off doing a search for your question Ms Anng
this is what I got back...
http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/google-account-hacked-gmail-password-change/1947/
Cindy
Patrick Isherwood7
Retired
Very interesting. Many thanks for the info.
Anginetta W.9
International Marketing Consultant
Thank you for the info, i believe i have been hacked. i can still access my email but someone is sending emails from my account to my contacts. in this case what do i do
Harold Baughman10
Everyone suspects at one-time-or-another.....your advise clarifies well....."GREAT BLOG", Dawie.....
Harold
Cindy Bolley16
HHCTB?
What a great post
Thanks so much Dawie.
I know several people who's emails
have been hacked, a true night mare indeed.
Lately it has been Skype accounts that have been hacked.
I hope you don't mind me putting in a caution here about Skype... never ever ever accept a file from someone even if you know them when your on SKYPE unless you are for certain that the person who is sending you that file really is them.
And the odd messages that you from a Skype contact telling you to click on